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The defense ministers of Japan, the United States and South Korea at a meeting Saturday confirmed that the three countries will closely cooperate to deal with North Korea’s nuclear and missile development programs.
In order to stop North Korea’s provocations, it is important that Japan, the United States and South Korea are united, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said, expressing hopes to deepen and develop the three-way cooperation.
The three, also including U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his South Korean counterpart, Han Min Koo, also issued a joint statement that “condemned in the strongest terms North Korea’s recent provocative actions.”
In the statement, the trio urged the communist country to stop the programs immediately.
The three countries are scheduled to conduct a joint military drill off Hawaii late this month to practice the detection and tracking of a missile launch, based on a scenario that North Korea has fired a ballistic missile.
The defense heads agreed to enhance the three-way defense cooperation through the drill and other measures. Also confirmed was the need for strengthening information sharing among the defense authorities of the three countries.
The officials discussed the situations in East and South China Seas amid China’s increasing assertiveness and reaffirmed the importance of freedom of flight and navigation.
At the three-way meeting, Nakatani also called for an early conclusion of a general security of military information agreement, or GSOMIA, between the Self-Defense Forces and South Korea’s military.
(THE JAPAN NEWS)
